Annual show is family affair for Hodsons

It takes a long time and a lot of work to turn a hard-shell gourd into a beautiful piece of art. The same can be said for staging an annual art festival. Sondra Hodson is busy with both as the Friday-night opening of the annual "Art, For Heaven's Sake!" festival gets closer.

"It does become a little bit complex," said Hodson, who does publicity for the festival and also - like dozens of others involved - is quick to dive into whatever final chores need doing. "I'll be running around doing setup all day on Friday, putting up pop-up tents, showing artists where to be, getting messy, and then running home to change just before we open - and I come back and I'm an artist."

Hodson has helped to put on the festival for about 20 years, she said, and began showing her artwork about 10 years ago.

"Art, for Heaven's Sake!" is a longstanding tradition for Hodson's family and many other members of Redlands United Church of Christ, which introduced the event in 1979. Her father, Richard Hodson, takes care of plumbing and electricity. Before the 7 p.m. Friday opening, for example, he will circulate among the artists with equipment they might need to light their artwork.

"Dad is the fix-it man," Hodson said. "If something breaks he usually can make it work again."

Her mother, Mara "Dee" Hodson, makes signs for the show, creates brochures for guests and maintains the mailing lists for guests and artists -- festival organizers mail several thousand postcards each year. She also sets up Friday's decorative lights and assigns jobs to volunteers.

Hodson's brother Paul takes charge of logistics, getting the pop-up tents and security fencing set up, and making sure the artists have everything they need. He also works with the security guards and schedules the musical entertainment.

"And of course, it takes many more people to do this," Hodson said, including a trio of co-chairwomen, a team of cashiers, a pair of treasurers, an artist hospitality manager, food organizers and many other helpers. "Church members and even some who are not church members work as a team to pull this show off."

Hodson, an English teacher at Cope Middle School in Redlands, said she creates 15 to 20 gourd pieces in a year. She starts with green hard-shell gourds, a variety used by local Native Americans to make many types of carriers and containers. The gourds are sometimes available pre-cleaned, but Hodson prefers to dry them herself.

"The gourds are green, and they dry from the inside out," she said. "Some take two years to dry all the way through. As they dry, they grow mold on the outside, which can give a mottled pattern to the finished product. Once dry, they are as hard as wood."

Then it's time to open them, Hodson said. She starts by deciding whether she wants a lid on the piece. If so, she figures out how to cut so the parts will fit together nicely, and makes her incision.

"When you look inside, it's not that impressive," she said. "Think semi-moldy dried-up pumpkins." She has, however, found unexpected residents -- including a nest of carpenter ants.

"That was a surprise," she said.

With the gourd open, Hodson uses a drill with a special bit to smooth the inside, and sands the outside to prepare it for painting. She draws decorative inspiration from cultures all over the world, she said, and also comes up with her own designs.